Joey Payeur
Jordan Sinclair wavered somewhere between pleased and. . . .
Well, he couldn’t quite pin down the other extreme he was feeling.
“I don’t know if I’d really say disappointed,” the head coach of the Muskie boys’ hockey team remarked after the squad’s 3-2 win over the Sturgeon Heights Huskies (Winnipeg) on Sunday in the bronze-medal game at the annual John Taylor Piper Classic.
“We fell a little short of our goal of winning the tournament but I thought we had a pretty good weekend.
“We had as good a chance as anybody but there’s no shame in third place,” Sinclair stressed.
“We were definitely in the conversation for the best team at the tournament, and hopefully we’ll learn from it going forward.
“You’re not going to win them all,” he noted. “The problem is when you don’t learn from losing.”
Fort High opened play with a 7-3 win over the Garden City Gophers before trouncing the Shaftesbury Titans 6-1 to top its pool.
“The first game, we could have done a little better defensively,” Sinclair admitted. “We got a little scrambly and chaotic.
“There was a little panic in our game, and guys were running around trying to do their job and somebody else’s job.
“Both games were close going into the third period and then, both times, we got an early goal in the third and that opened the floodgates,” he added.
Blueliners were big contributors against Garden City, with Byron Stewart (two), Brandon Kocuiba, and tournament all-star Mike Drouin each scoring.
James Gushulak also scored twice while his cousin, Cam Gushulak, had one.
Eric Pitkanen and Chase McGuire, meanwhile, each lit the lamp twice versus Shaftesbury, with Austin Armstrong and Cam Gushulak netting singles.
The Lord Selkirk Royals (Winnipeg) awaited the Muskies in the semi-finals, which saw in the teams deadlocked at 2-2 after 40 minutes.
Cam Gushulak and McGuire provided Fort High’s goals.
Sinclair never saw the plot twist coming.
“It was 5-2 before we had time to warm the bench again,” he said ruefully.
“I don’t really have any explanation how it happened or why it happened,” he added.
“We just came out ‘blah’ to start the third and 1-2-3, they had three quick ones.
“It’s a tough one to lose,” Sinclair said. “But give Selkirk credit. They’re a good team.”
Rather than cry over the loss, the Muskies instead chose to come out firing at the Huskies.
Mikel Ward put a rebound past Huskies’ goalie Randy Bjornson in a scramble following Drouin’s rush to the net in the first period for a 1-0 lead.
Then after a scoreless second period, Brent Jourdain made it 2-0 in the third when he pokechecked a Huskies’ defenceman starting to come up ice and sent a wrist shot past Bjornson.
Shortly afterwards, Drouin went digging in the corner in the Sturgeon Heights’ zone to eventually retrieve the puck and centre it to McGuire, who labelled one to the corner for a three-goal cushion.
“I wouldn’t say Mike did anything spectacular this weekend that he hasn’t done for 99 percent of the year,” Sinclair said about Drouin, who took over as captain for McGuire last month.
“He’s really been solid the whole year and I would have to say he has been our best player this year,” he lauded.
“He’s been a good choice as captain, and been very good on and off the ice.
“He delivered a positive message to get everyone on the same page and has done a good job with the young players in trying to get them where they need to be,” Sinclair noted.
The Muskies staved off a two-man advantage for the Huskies later in the third but Sturgeon Heights scored shortly after the first penalty expired.
The Huskies added one more just before the final buzzer but it was too little, too late.
Booth got the win, finishing the weekend having played every minute with backup Spencer Murphy not making the trip due to illness.
Forward Landon Woods also was not in the lineup for the tournament.
As well, Ward and defenceman Connor Tibbs didn’t play the third period Sunday after suffering upper-body injuries.
But both were not expected to miss any more playing time.
The Muskies now are in the midst of a nine-day layoff due to the Thunder Bay Minor Midget ‘AAA’ Kings cancelling their scheduled three-game exhibition visit here this weekend due to “financial considerations.”
The black-and-gold are scheduled to resume action next Tuesday (Jan. 31) at 7:30 at the ’52 Canadians Arena against the Sioux Lookout Warriors.
“Ideally, you would like to continue playing but it is what it is,” shrugged Sinclair.
The Muskies then will face the other extreme with five games in six days starting with the Warriors.
“We go from this break to going all the way right into the playoffs being busy, and then it’s three weeks off before OFSAA [March 21-23 in Fort Frances],” Sinclair noted.
“It’s unfortunate that there’s not more of a flow to the season.”
